The Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference provides a general forum for disseminating the latest developments in bioinformatics. ISMB is a multidisciplinary conference that brings together scientists from computer science, molecular biology, mathematics and statistics. The venue for the ISMB meeting moves annually between North America and non North American sites. The dates for ISMB 2005 is June 25 - 29, 2005, and will be held in Detroit, Ml, USA. ISMB 2006 will be held in Fortaleza, BRAZIL on August 06-10, 2006. The ISMB 2007 site is yet to be determined. The goal of the ISMB meeting is to bring together biologists and computational scientists in a focus on actual biological problems, i.e., not simply theoretical calculations. The combined focus on "intelligent systems" and actual biological data makes ISMB a unique and highly important meeting. This grant requests funding in support of student participation and student related costs. In a highly international and interdisciplinary field such as computational biology, it is important for students to gain experience with a variety of approaches and viewpoints. Students will have ample opportunity, in many cases for the first time, to present their work as posters or as formal presentations. The contacts that they form and the directions they choose may last their professional lives. It has been the experience of ISMB conferences in the past that the high number of student and young investigator participants (approximately 37% of all participants) gives the conference a unique vitality and energy. This proposal seeks to assist them at this critical but resource-limited stage in their careers.